Nansemond

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A Nansemond family from Norfolk County, VA at the beginning of the 20th century.

The Nansemond have been recognized as a Native American tribe by the Commonwealth of Virginia, along with seven other Virginia Indian[1] tribes.[2] They are not Federally recognized but are one of six Virginia tribes covered in a bill for Federal recognition under consideration by the United States Congress. Most members of the tribe live in the Suffolk/Chesapeake, Virginia area.[3] They were of the Algonquian-language family.[4]


Contents

[edit] History

The Nansemond were members of the Powhatan chiefdom.[4] They lived along the Nansemond River, an area they called Chuckatuck.[4] In 1607, when English arrived to settle at Jamestown, the Nansemond were initially wary.[5]

In 1608, the English raided one of the Nansemond towns, burning houses and destroying canoes to force them to give corn to the settlers.[3] Captain John Smith and his men demanded 400 bushels of corn or threatened to destroy the village, remaining canoes, and houses.[4] The tribe agreed, and Smith and his men left with most of the tribe's corn supply. They returned the following month for the rest, which left the tribe in bad shape for the winter. Relations between the English and the Nansemond deteriorated further in 1609 when the English tried to gain control of Dumpling Island, where the head chief lived and where the tribe's temples and sacred items were kept.[3] The English destroyed the burial sites of tribal leaders and temples. Houses and religious sites were ransacked for valuables, such as pearls and copper ornaments, that were buried with the bodies of leaders.[4] By the 1630s the English began to move into Nansemond lands, with mixed reactions.[5]

[edit] Marriage of John Bass and Elizabeth Tucker

On 14 August 1638, John Bass, a settler in Norfolk County, Virginia, married a local woman, Keziah Elizabeth Tucker. She was the daughter of a baptized Christian, Nansemond leader known as Robin. Bass was born 7 September 1616. Both Robin and his daughter Elizabeth were converts to Christianity.[6] They received English names at their baptisms. Some Nansemond claim descent from this marriage.[4] Based on her research, Dr. Helen C. Rountree says that all current Nansemond descend from this marriage, making the tribe a family affair.[5] Paul Heinegg traced the family, noting that some descendants married into white families, while others married into African-American ones, becoming part of each culture. In the 18th century both William Bass (son of John) and his son William Bass obtained certificates certifying they were only of English and Nansemond descent.[6]

The photo above shows members of the Weaver and Bass families, ca. 1900:

William H. Weaver is sitting; Augustus Bass is standing behind him. The Weaver family were indentured East Indians (from modern-day India and Pakistan) who were free in Lancaster County by about 1710. By 1732 they were "taxables" [note: free blacks and Indians had to pay a tax in Virginia and North Carolina] in Norfolk County and taxable "Mulatto" landowners in nearby Hertford County, North Carolina by 1741. By 1820 there were 164 "free colored" members of the family in Hertford County. In the 1830s some registered as Nansemond Indians in Norfolk County. (Smithsonian Institution, "Nansemond Indians, ca. 1900.")

[6]

In the late 20th century, Paul Heinegg's extensive research in colonial records revealed the origins of many free people of color in Virginia and the Chesapeake Bay Colony. Some free African Americans (as people of color were chiefly defined under the binary system of segregation) were descended from slaves who were freed as early as the 17th century. But, most descended from unions of white women, indentured or free, and African or African American men, indentured, free or slave. There were also some indentured men from present-day India and Pakistan who intermarried with European and African women. Some of the few Native Americans who adopted English customs also married into these families or to English settlers, as noted for Keziah Elizabeth Tucker, above.[6]

In many cases these free families migrated to frontier areas of Virginia and North Carolina, as did the Bass and Weaver families (including descendants), to purchase land and be relatively free of the racial strictures of the coastal plantation areas. In some areas, the lighter-skinned descendants formed communities known as tri-racial isolates.[6] Some of these, like the Nansemond, have succeeded in gaining recognition as Native American tribes by Virginia or North Carolina.

The Nansemond were affected by English colonial pressures in the 17th century and split apart. Those who were Christianized and had adopted more English customs stayed along the Nansemond River as farmers. "The other Nansemonds warred with the English in 1644, fled southwest to the Nottoway River, and had a reservation assigned them there by the Virginia colony. By 1744 they had ceased using the reservation and gone to live with the Nottoway Indians [note: this was ab Iroquoian-language tribe] on another reservation nearby... In 1806 the last surviving Nansemond on the Nottoway Reservation died." The Nansemond sold their reservation in 1792.[5]

[edit] Nansemond today

Today, the Nansemond have about 200 tribal members.[7] As a "citizen tribe", they gained recognition by Virginia in 1984.[8] The disruption of wars and loss of records in Virginia would make it difficult for them to provide the extensive documentation needed for Federal recognition. The current Chief is Barry "Big Buck" Bass.[7]

They hold monthly tribal meetings at the Indiana United Methodist Church (which was founded in 1850 as a mission for the Nansemond). The tribe co-hosts an annual powwow in June in Chesapeake, and has an Annual Powwow every year in August. The tribe has also operated a museum and gift shops.[3]

[edit] Mattanock

The Nansemond are the only state-recognized tribe in Virginia that have not purchased land for their tribe. But, they are trying to get the city of Suffolk to give up 100 acres of an 1,100 acre riverfront park. They want to use this land to reconstruct Mattanock, a town of their ancestors. They plan to attract tourists by demonstrating their heritage.[7] The tribe has enlisted the help of Helen C. Rountree, whose research helped find Mattanock Town's location. Once built the village would utilize archaeological and other research to assure the proper dimensions of longhouses built on the site.[9]

They have been trying to obtain the area to put a cultural center, the Mattanock village, tribal offices, pow wow grounds and a meeting place for the tribe for more than 10 years. The Suffolk task force on the project, made up of mostly non-Indians, has said the site should be given to the Nansemond. Suffolk's mayor, E. Dana Dickens III has come out in support of the project as well, saying of the proposed museum and village, "It certainly can be a big part of Suffolk's tourism." The tribe has had to supply detailed plans for the project, including detailed drawings upon the city's request. They have also had to submit documentation to the Mattanock Town task force that explains the type of non-profit foundation that will be created once the deed to the land is given to the tribe. All the Nansemond need now is the approval of the Suffolk City Council.[9] As of 2009, the tribe is still trying to acquire the land.[7]

[edit] Federal recognition

The Nansemond and other Virginia tribes have not been accorded Federal recognition by the US government, but a bill to recognize six tribes has been introduced into both houses of Congress. It would cover the following: Chickahominy Indian Tribe; Eastern Chickahominy Indian Tribe; Upper Mattaponi Tribe; Rappahannock Tribe, Inc.; Monacan Indian Nation; and Nansemond Indian Tribe.[10] In 2009 supporters again proposed the "Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act". By June 2009 the bill has passed the House Committee on Natural Resources and the US House of Representatives. A companion bill was sent to the Senate the date after the bill was voted on in the House. That bill was sent to the Senate's Committee on Indian Affairs. On October 22, 2009 the bill was approved by the Senate committee. This is the furthest the bill has gotten in the Congressional process.[11][12]

[edit] References

  1. ^ "A Guide to Writing about Virginia Indians and Virginia Indian History", Virginia Council on Indians, Commonwealth of Virginia, updated Aug 2009, accessed 16 Sep 2009
  2. ^ "Virginia Tribe", Virginia Council on Indians, Commonwealth of Virginia, updated Aug 2009, accessed 16 Sep 2009
  3. ^ a b c d Karenne Wood, ed., The Virginia Indian Heritage Trail, Charlottesville, VA: Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, 2007
  4. ^ a b c d e f Waugaman, Sandra F. and Danielle-Moretti-Langholtz, Ph.D. We're Still Here: Contemporary Virginia Indians Tell Their Stories, Richmond, VA: Palari Publishing, 2006 (revised edition)
  5. ^ a b c d Dr. Helen C. Rountree, "Nansemond History", Nansemond Tribal Association, accessed 16 Sep 2009
  6. ^ a b c d e Paul Heinegg, Free African Americans of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland and Delaware, accessed 15 Feb 2008
  7. ^ a b c d Joanne Kimberlain, "We're Still Here," The Virginian-Pilot, June 7-9 2009: Print.
  8. ^ Dr. Helen C. Rountree, "Powhatan History", Nansemond Tribe Website, 2009, accessed 16 Sep 2009
  9. ^ a b Bobby Whitehead, "Nansemond Indians seek to reconstruct Mattanock Town.", Indian Country Today, accessed 16 September 2009.
  10. ^ "Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act of 2003, 108th Congress bill S.1423", introduced by then-Sen. George Allen (R-VA), not enacted.
  11. ^ "H.R. 1385, Thomasina E. Jordan Indian Tribes of Virginia Federal Recognition Act", GovTrack.us
  12. ^ "Statement of Governor Kaine Submitted to the United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs" Official Site of the Governor of Virginia

[edit] External links


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